The Free Software Foundation (FSF) started promoting the idea of sharing code way back in 1985, and since then it's defended the rights of computer users and developers. The FSF says that the terms "open" and "closed" are not effective words when classifying software, and instead considers programs either freedom-respecting ("free" or "libre") or freedom-trampling ("non-free" or "proprietary"). Whatever terminology you use, the imperative is that computers must belong, part and parcel, to the users, and not to the corporations that owns the software the computers run. This is why the GNU Project, and the Linux kernel, Freedesktop.org, and so many other open source projects are so important.
Recently, the FSF has acquired a new executive director, Zoë Kooyman. I met Zoë in 2019 at an All Things Open conference. She wasn't yet the executive director of the FSF at that time, of course, but was managing their growing list of major events, including LibrePlanet. I was captivated by her energy and sincerity as she introduced me to a seemingly nonstop roster of people creating the freedom-respecting software I used on a daily basis. I had stumbled into an FSF meetup and ended up hanging out with the people who were actively defining the way I lived my digital life. These were the people who ensured that I had what Zoë Kooyman and the FSF calls the four essential freedoms:
- The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose (freedom 0).
- The freedom to study how